WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) baby star;
1928—critical and public recognition for role in
Ramona
; worked with United Artists, 1929–31, RKO, 1932–33,
Warners, 1934–36, Columbia, 1937, and 20th Century-Fox,
1937–38; 1943—left Hollywood to seek more rewarding career
in Mexico; in
Flor Silvestre
, first of several successful films for director Emilio Fernández.
Awards:
Ariele Awards for Best Actress, for
Las abandonados
, 1944,
Doña Perfecta
, 1951, and
The Boy and the Fog
, 1953; Special Ariele Award, 1974.
Died:
In Newport Beach, California, 11 April 1983.

Braun, Eric, "Queen of Mexico," in
Films and Filming
(London), July 1972.

Shipman, David,
The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years
, rev. ed., 1979.

Obituary in
New York Times
, 13 April 1983.

Obituary in
Variety
(New York), 13 April 1983.

Obituary in
Cinéma
(Paris), September 1983.

The Annual Obituary 1983
(Chicago), 1984.

Gill, Brendan, "Cedric Gibbons and Dolores Del Rio: the Art
Director and Star of
Flying Down to Rio
in Santa Monica," in
Architectural Digest
(Los Angeles), April 1992.

* * *

Dolores Del Rio, born into an aristocratic Mexican family, was the
daughter of a banker, and also second cousin to the actor Ramon Novarro.
In 1925 she came to the United States to begin an acting career that
continued into the 1970s. She worked in American and Mexican films (she
won four Arieles, Mexico's equivalent to the Oscar), and
international productions, with such major directors as Edwin Carewe (who
discovered her at a Mexico City tea party, brought her to Hollywood, and
was instrumental in helping her career), Busby Berkeley, Clarence Brown,
Emilio Fernández, Roberto Gavaldón, Francesco Rosi, Don
Siegel, Raoul Walsh, and Orson Welles.

Among the reasons for her remarkable staying power were her skill in
creating believable characters and a beauty that transcended
age—she was as lovely at 65 as she had been at 25. Most
importantly, she never allowed herself to be typed as the sexy Mexican
spitfire who fractures the English language. She brought dignity to both
leading and character parts, portraying with ease women of all social
classes.

Silent films had allowed Del Rio great flexibility in the roles she could
play, with nationalities ranging from American Indian to Russian, Acadian,
Brazilian, French, Spanish, and, of course, Mexican. In sound films she
was more often cast as a woman of Mexican or Spanish descent because of
her accent. Some of her most memorable roles in American films were as
Charmaine in the World War I classic
What Price Glory?
, the Acadian woman who searches the bayous of Louisiana for her lost love
in
Evangeline
, the stunning Brazilian heiress in
Flying Down to Rio
, a beautiful Polynesian native in
Bird of Paradise
, the title role in
Madame Du Barry
, the dancer Josette in
Journey into Fear
, María Dolores in
The Fugitive
, and a Kiowa Indian married to a white settler in
Flaming Star
.

The first American phase of her career lasted from Edwin Carewe's
Joanna
in 1925 to Orson Welles's 1942
Journey into Fear
, after which she returned to Mexico. She may have seen new opportunities
in her native land: by brilliantly assembling a top director, Emilio
Fernández, a top cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, and a top
leading actor, Pedro Armendáriz, Del Rio shortly became one of
Mexico's leading box-office attractions. She continued to appear
occasionally in some American films and television programs (for example,
John Ford's
Cheyenne Autumn
and an episode of
Marcus Welby, M.D.
). By the 1970s she was devoting less time to performing and more to
charity work in Mexico.

In her article "Achieving Stardom" in
Breaking into the Movies
, Del Rio wrote, "my conception of a great success is . . . being
capable of reflecting and impersonating all the beauty and cleverness of
every different type of woman." In her long and varied career, she
conveyed both the inner and outer beauty of her characters, and she did so
with authenticity and dignity.

—H. Wayne Schuth

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